Conservatism in American Crime Films By

This article uses conservative crime films from the founding era of modern conservatism, the late 1960s and early 1970s, to explain conservative legal thought, specifically popular rather than professional thinking about law, rights, justice, and courts. The primary focus is on Dirty Harry and Death Wish, two films whose explicitly conservative themes provide excellent insights into the change from liberal to conservative thinking about crime. The primary objective is to increase understanding of legal conservatism, the dominant influence on contemporary criminal justice policy. The article uses the crime control and due process models of justice to explain conservative attitudes and policies, with special attention paid to the relationship between law and order